


Fake it till you make it

by elliebell (Naladot)



Category: Day6 (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gossip, Humor, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-10 13:44:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20528993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naladot/pseuds/elliebell
Summary: Everyone knows Brian and Nayeon are dating. No one will tell them that they all know. Written for K-Pop Ficmix 2019.





	Fake it till you make it

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hachimitsuto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hachimitsuto/gifts).
  * Inspired by [can't hide it](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243447) by [hachimitsuto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hachimitsuto/pseuds/hachimitsuto). 

> Just fiction.
> 
> Thank you, hachimitsuto, for the opportunity to remix your beautiful stories!!

If Dispatch were to release one of their pre-written articles to the public, it would state that Twice’s Nayeon and Day6’s Brian have been dating for approximately three months. This is not entirely accurate, as Wonpil ran into Nayeon sneaking out of his band’s apartment around six months ago. She said she came by to “borrow a metronome,” which was just absurd enough to stun Wonpil into indefinite silence.

That is until approximately five months ago, when Brian and Nayeon linked pinkies backstage at a performance, and apparently thought no one could see, but a lot of people could see, and Jae nodded in the direction of their hands and gave Wonpil a look.

This led to a comparing of notes across the band, during which they estimated the beginning of the relationship to have occurred about seven months ago, if you discount whatever happened during their trainee years. It is obligatory to discount whatever happened during your trainee years, so the relationship is somewhere between six to eight months old.

“Should we like, confront him?” Jae asks one afternoon, watching Brian smile too widely into his phone.

“You know how weird he gets,” Sungjin answers back in a whisper. “We should probably let him tell us himself? And maybe they’re just, I don’t know, hooking up.”

Jae looks back at Brian’s too-giddy grin. “Yeah. There’s definitely no emotions involved there. None at all.”

  
  
  
  


“We can just go to another restaurant,” Bambam says, staring longingly through the rain-slick windows and into the warm restaurant interior on the other side. He shivers, and looks at Jackson through the rivulets of water sliding off his umbrella. “That’d be a good idea. Wouldn’t it?”

Jackson frowns, one corner of his upper lip pulling up high. “But these noodles—”

“But Brian-hyung—”

“You’re not scared of him, are you? I’m not scared of him.”

“It’s not  _ scared _ so much as it is, I don’t want Brian-hyung to hate me. Do  _ you _ want him to hate  _ you? _ ”

Jackson groans. “That’s a good point,” he concedes, and turns to look through the window himself. “God, I just didn’t realize he was an absolute idiot.”

On the other side of the window, Brian—with bright blonde idol hair sticking out from under his baseball cap, mind you—is sitting with the person best labeled nowadays as Twice’s Nayeon, whose only effort to conceal her appearance seems to be the oversized Day6 sweatshirt she’s wearing. They are holding hands.

“Love just, I dunno, does things to people,” Bambam says wistfully.

Jackson resists the urge to glare at him, images of poorly-lit selfies floating across his mind. “They’re not  _ in love, _ ” he insists.

“It’s been a whole month since Jeongyeon told Jinyoung that she overhead Nayeon talking in her sleep—”

“Jeongyeon is feeding Jinyoung  _ lies _ , man, the girls don’t keep secrets from each other.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, of course I’m not sure.” Jackson purses his lips and looks up at the darkening sky. “And I think Wonpil knows something, but he’s not telling. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I want these noodles.”

And then he turns on his heel and walks into the store, the bell over the door announcing his entrance with a loud jingle.

Bambam watches from outside as Jackson dramatically closes his umbrella and Brian looks up, sees who it is, turns a pale shade of red, and whisks Nayeon off to somewhere in the back of the restaurant.

He really didn’t think his third-favorite hyung was this stupid, but—well, at least they get noodles now.

  
  
  


“I didn’t know you guys knew about this place,” Brian says, later, with an overly-enthusiastic laugh, as he runs his fingers back through his hair and glances over his shoulder.

Jackson can  _ see _ Nayeon darting out of the bathroom door wearing Brian’s baseball cap, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Dude, everyone knows about this place,” Bambam offers.

“Oh  _ really?” _ Brian says with a laugh.

Jackson looks at Bambam. Bambam looks at Jackson.

“So can we take a look at the lyrics you came here to write?” Jackson asks.

Brian laughs too loudly again. “I was procrastinating.”

Bambam looks at Jackson. Jackson looks at Brian. Then he meets Bambam’s eyes and gives the slightest twitch of his eyebrows.

“Ah,” Jackson says in a monotone. “That makes sense.”

  
  
  
  


“Tell me what you know and I’ll tell you what I know,” Jeongyeon says outside the door to the practice room, a few weeks later when they’ve all gathered at the company to rehearse for the next JYP Nation tour.

Sungjin looks through the door and sees Brian passed out on the floor, snoring softly. “What’s the catch?”

“What are you suspicious of me for?” Jeongyeon asks.

“One time Nayeon said the same thing to me and somehow the next day everyone knew I hadn’t passed my dance evaluations,” Sungjin says, thinking back.

“Sungjin, we all _ saw  _ you perform for evaluations that month.” Jeongyeon squints at him, obviously annoyed. “I know that you know, and you know that I know, and  _ they _ don’t know that we know, so if you can tell me what you know and I can tell you what I know, then we’ll know twice as much as they don’t know.”

Sungjin stares at her. “What?”

“ _ Sungjin. _ ”

“Okay, fine,” Sungjin groans. “Sometimes I see her car in the street outside the building behind ours.”

“That must be what, three in the morning? Can Brian even stay awake that long?”

“I don’t know what they’re up doing,” Sungjin says, wrinkling his nose. “Do you know why they won’t talk about it?”

“Emotional scarring?” Jeongyeon says with a shrug. “Maladjustment? Embarrassment?”

“Embarrassment?”

“You know. Somehow they could both do better than each other. I don’t know how that’s true, but it is.”

Sungjin furrows his brow in confusion, but lets it go. “Maybe Jae’s right, and we should say something.”

“They’ll bring it up when they want to. And probably lie about the timeline. Come on.”

Jeongyeon pushes open the door to the room and walks over to the water cooler. Brian doesn’t even stir from his place on the floor.

“I wonder how BRIAN will feel when he finds out AYEON didn’t stop to watch even ONE of his rehearsals,” Jeongyeon says loudly as she refills her water bottle, one eye on Brian. She looks at Sungjin and gestures for him to join in.

Sungjin catches on a half-second later, suddenly remembering Brian’s unrequited crush on Baek Ayeon a few years ago, which still entertained people when other gossip was slow. “I know. I always thought BRIAN liked AYEON but she has never RETURNED HIS FEELINGS.”

“TOO BAD.” Jeongyeon takes a gulp of water.

Brian squints one eye open. Bambam and Dowoon walk in.

“What are you talking about?” Dowoon whispers.

“Brian and Baek Ayeon,” Sungjin answers.

“Brian and Ayeon? But what about Brian and Na—”

At this, Jeongyeon elbows him hard in the side, and Dowoon turns to Bambam, wincing. “Ah, right, Ayeon.”

They all see Brian pull out his phone, and then smile at it. And they all give a collective eye-roll.

Jae walks in then, looking at the clump of them next to the water cooler and then over to Brian. “Hey man, stop grinning at your phone and get up from the floor,” Jae yells. “What are you so happy about?”

Brian ignores him, and the others all exchange another knowing look.

“Oh,” Bambam says dramatically, “Brian, look what I found, your new bass strap. I shall now use it to wipe the sweat off of my forehead. And then my armpits.”

Only then does Brian put his phone away and get up off the floor, daring Bambam to even try.

  
  
  
  


By the time JYP Nation rolls around, everyone is divided into three camps. The first camp believes that Brian is going to get hurt, what is he thinking dating the most idol-y of idols, who simply doesn’t have time to reciprocate his feelings to the depth and breadth he needs. The second camp believes that Nayeon could do better; after all, Twice is very famous and it’s imperative to date at your fame grade in order to benefit your career—or else to date someone not famous at all, and Brian doesn’t fit any of these requirements, and he’s also terribly embarrassing when he dances. The third camp consists of just Jae, and he is getting really annoyed with all the whispering.

These factions are arguing very vehemently under their breath while watching the dress rehearsals for Brian and Nayeon’s special stage at JYP Nation.

“Do they think we’re stupid,” is how Jinyoung begins, gesturing at the stage. They are doing a cover of Maroon 5 and Rihanna’s “If I Never See Your Face Again,” and it’s only now that they’re in costume that the effect doesn’t cause everyone intense second-hand embarrassment.

“They should have waited to get together until after they performed this song,” Jihyo says, evaluating them with a sigh. “There’s absolutely no sexual tension anymore. All the tension—“

“Please don’t say it,” says Chaeryeong, putting her fingers against her ears. “I am too young to hear this.”

“Technically you’re not—” Ryujin begins, looking back at her band mate.

“Too. Young.” Chaeryeong reiterates. Jihyo gives a shrug, and pats her on the shoulder.

“The problem is that Brian thinks he’s sexy,” Jinyoung continues.

“He’s sexy,” Jaebum counters.

Jinyoung gestures to the stage. There’s some kind of coordinated hip-roll happening. Everyone winces and looks away.

“When he’s not trying to be,” Jaebum qualifies.

“You know,” Jae pipes up, “If anyone had just  _ told them we knew _ , we could have avoided this performance  _ entirely. _ ”

  
  
  
  


The next morning, Sungjin wakes up to hear Brian softly close the door to their hotel room. He looks at the clock—6:30 AM. There’s a chance Brian is on his way to the gym, but Sungjin only entertains that hopeful thought for a few minutes before Jae’s words from dress rehearsal force him to drag himself out of bed. He dresses, silently cursing his bad luck as he pulls on a shirt, and then grabs the keycard and heads for the elevator.

The hotel restaurant is large and lavish and Brian and Nayeon aren’t even hiding in a corner, because apparently, his book-smart genius-lyricist friend is a complete and utter doofus when in love.

“Good morning!” Sungjin croons as he slides in next to Brian. Nayeon gives him a frozen grin. Brian chokes on his coffee.

Sungjin pats Brian on the back. “Why didn’t you wake me up?” He asks.

Brian is wheezing too hard to answer.

Nayeon, the smarter one, smiles at Sungjin. “He said you were sleeping soundly.” She looks at Brian, and possibly kicks him under the table. “Right?”

“Right,” Brian chokes out, and stabs a croissant.

  
  
  
  


Jae really has the worst luck out of anyone.

After Brian and Nayeon’s special stage was a great success—because fans apparently don’t have  _ eyes _ or  _ taste _ or maybe Brian has just so softened his image that no one thought of him as having or being of sexual interest anymore—the company asked for a  _ new _ collaboration between Twice and Day6, just to keep things interesting.

Hence Jae is stuck in a practice room with the two of them making heart-eyes at each other.

It’s not that it’s that bad except that they have work to get done, and also Jae hates being treated like he’s stupid. Because he’s  _ not _ stupid, and holy crap does she really think she can run her fingers up and down Brian’s back and people can’t  _ see them? _ This is an actual insult to Jae’s intelligence, is what it is.

He clears his throat. And then sighs.

Everyone keeps saying  _ don’t let them know that we know _ and  _ they’ll tell us when they’re ready _ , but Jae is pretty sure that this is all a conspiracy. Everyone is just hoping that Brian and Nayeon will break up before anyone actually has to deal with them acting like a lovey-dovey couple, all out in the open, PDA at max capacity. But as Jae sees it, the sneaking around is just prolonging the relationship, adding fuel to a fire of secrecy, and once they get it out in the open, it’ll either explode and end, or simmer out and they’ll be a normal long-term relationship, which for Brian still inevitably ends with a break-up song, but you never know. They could stand a chance. But not if they’re sneaking around like this.

Jae sighs again.

“What?” Brian demands.

"I didn't want to say this, but you put me in an uncomfortable situation, so I can't help but say this." Jae grins, and then pushes himself away from the other two. "I feel very awkward right now."

Nayeon flushes red. “What are you talking about?”

It’s now or never. "The one thing I hate the most in the world, besides the look in Wonpil's eyes when I make a mistake he's making fun of me in his mind—as if  _ he's _ never forgotten his lyrics before, and you  _ know _ he always forgets his lyrics—anyway—that one thing I hate is thirdwheeling.”

It’s a very good speech. Jae looks at the floor, feeling the awkward level rise dangerously.

Finally, he looks up. And—he probably should have expected this—they both look like they don’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

Jae sighs. "Look, I know you're dating, so you don't have to pretend like you're not."

“What?” They both cry, in pitch-perfect unison.

Jae looks between them. “You—you really thought you were hiding it?”

“Wait—who else knows about this?” Nayeon demands.

Jae looks between them. He’s genuinely flabbergasted. “Everyone?” He laughs. “We been knew, man.”

And with that, he gets up and exits the room, yelling “It’s not my fault!” As he metaphorically drops the mic.

  
  


Fortunately, Dispatch never does release an article.

This is, of course, because Nayeon inadvertently posts a picture where Brian can be seen in the reflection of Nayeon’s earrings, but it is still less dramatic of a mistake than other people in their company have made.

“Well,” Wonpil says, looking up from his phone to where Brian and Nayeon are holding each other, resolute against the swirling gossip storm, “I guess now we’ve gotta sing us-against-the-world songs, huh?”

_end_.


End file.
